Contamination of Tampa’s recycling is at an all-time high, says solid waste department

While there are surely a few Tampa residents out there who spend a few extra minutes each week breaking down boxes or rinsing a couple marinara jars before taking out the recycling bin, it seems more and more of us would rather use these green receptacles as backup trash cans.

Earlier this week, the City of Tampa’s Solid Waste Department released a statement claiming that recycling contamination is at an all-time high.

The department says that many residents are just unaware of what items can be recycled, and may be doing what is called “wishcycling,” which is when you basically just hope and pray something is recyclable when it most definitely is not.

“Contaminants are items that are not accepted in the recycling program and turn your recycling into nothing more than trash,” says the statement. “There are many types of recycling contamination, including plastic, food waste, and more. Some contaminants are worse than others and most are easily avoidable.”

Rather than just list common items the department says are not recyclable, the city pointed residents to download an app, which allows users to search if certain items should go in the trash or the recycling bin.

For example, the app says plastic grocery bags and greasy pizza boxes should not go in the recycling bin, nor should your neighbor’s dog poop bags. 

It’s an extra step that surely the people who refuse to breakdown a cardboard box will love to do.  And for those people, here’s a graphic from the city’s website that provides most of the rules:

“In the last 12 months, City of Tampa residents and businesses have recycled over 3.6 million pounds of material,” said Shelby Lewis, Recycling Coordinator. “Now, we are hoping to grow that number even more with additional knowledge and awareness on recycling the right way. Contamination risks the sustainability and success of the recycling program.”

People not knowing how and what to recycle seems to be an ongoing issue in Tampa. Back in 2020, the City of Tampa created stricter recycling rules following spikes in contamination, and after financial pressure from China’s “National Sword” policy, which was launched in 2017 and effectively halted the import of many recyclable materials and raised municipal costs for end processing.

Recycling is now pretty expensive, and many cities are losing money on these programs. But it’s also important to note that recycling also isn’t necessarily easy for the individual.

Blake Morgan, author of “The Customer Of The Future,” made this same point in a 2021 piece for Forbes, arguing that governments aren’t making it easy for people to recycle, and too much of the weight is now put on private companies, which really don’t care to create better packaging.

“In many cases, it seems like companies only promote and encourage recycling as far as it improves their image and makes them look environmentally responsible,” said Morgan. “But the actions are surface-level and often make things difficult for well-meaning consumers.”

The other big issue is there’s no national standard for recycling, and so what’s left is a confusing patchwork of rules that vary from city to city. “A consistent recycling program could lessen the confusion and reduce waste,” Morgan continued. “Varying standards, even within cities and counties, leave consumers to make their best guesses about what’s best for the environment.”

In other words, with the recent large influx of new residents in Tampa it actually makes sense that a lot of people are now “wishcycling.” 

This article appears in Nov 10-16, 2022.